Cochran to play role in crafting farm bill

By Deborah Barfield Berry and Christopher Doering

Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi said he'll work to protect Southern farmers as he helps craft a new farm bill amid heightened pressure on Congress to cut federal spending.

"We'll do the best we can ... to be sure that it's equitable and fair," said Cochran, the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

Cochran said agriculture programs could be hard hit by the general push to limit federal spending and, more immediately, by sequestration spending cuts that took effect March 1.

"We're going to have to make some difficult choices," Cochran said in an interview. "We can't fund everything that everybody wants us to fund because we need to ensure we stay within the budget limits."

Cochran returns to a leadership role on the agriculture panel just in time for what's expected to be intense debate over the farm bill.

Southern farm groups and lawmakers hope his leadership means they'll fare better in 2013 than in the farm bill debated last year, when Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas was the committee's ranking Republican.

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, who chaired the committee last year, continues to head it in this Congress.

"Southerners will have an experienced voice in the structure of the farm bill," said James Novak, an agriculture economist at Auburn University in Alabama. "He knows how to work with the system. ... Anybody working with that Congress is going to have difficulties. Things just are partisan and money-based."

Cochran, now serving his sixth term in the Senate, recently served as ranking member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. He stepped down late last year when his six-year term expired.

Cochran has served on the agriculture committee for more than 30 years. He chaired the panel from 2003-2005 and was instrumental in helping write the 2002 farm bill.

Cochran said the pressure to cut federal spending will be a key factor in shaping the bill this time.

"We have to make hard choices, and some things (will) have to wait until next year," he said, noting that some construction projects may be delayed.

The Senate passed a five-year $500 billion farm bill last June that slashed subsidy payments in favor of new crop insurance programs, despite opposition from Southern lawmakers who said the legislation unfairly shifted resources to Northern farmers.

Rice and peanut growers in the South benefit more from direct cash payments because they face higher production costs.

James Burrell, who co-owns a family farm in Oak Grove said it's "definitely a plus" to have a Southern lawmaker in a key position to influence the next farm bill.

"It's always good that somebody from the South or from Louisiana or from the area is on board," said Burrell, a soybean and livestock farmer.

The farm bill languished in the House last year. Instead, lawmakers passed a one-year measure that extended the 2008 farm law until September 30. The Senate and House agriculture committees have not decided when they will begin the arduous task of crafting a new farm bill.

Their work has been delayed by other issues, such as an upcoming deadline to raise the nation's debt ceiling and the anticipated impact of the sequestration spending cuts.

Peanut and rice growers are worried they would face bigger cuts than other farmers as the federal governments reduces spending.

"We just want a fair and level playing field," Randy Knight, president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau, said.

Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi, a member of the House Peanut Caucus, said Cochran will help produce a more balanced bill than the 2012 Senate legislation, which he said was "heavily weighted in favor of the Midwest."

"Agriculture jobs are important throughout the U.S., not just one region," said Nunnelee, R-1st District.

Cochran said most groups agree farmers should get their profits from the market and not the government.

"So what we're trying to do is have a program that takes care of the fluctuations and maybe disasters ... but (are) designed to even it out so that you don't lose important sectors of our economy when you have a drought or when you have flooded fields in areas that you don't expect," Cochran said.

Some Midwest farmers respect Cochran as someone who knows a lot about agriculture and strongly supports farm interests. They don't believe he will have enough influence to stop the move toward crop insurance and away from direct payments.

Cochran's status as the agriculture committee's ranking member "will probably give a little more representation to the Southern crops," said Dave Miller, 61, a corn and soybean farmer from Iowa. "It's not necessarily a loss for the Midwest."

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Cochran to play role in crafting farm bill

By Deborah Barfield Berry and Christopher DoeringGannett Washington BureauWASHINGTON -- Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi said he'll work to protect Southern farmers as he helps craft a new farm bill